Reader: The parks department should reread its mission statement

Letters

Tools

Protect? This summer's news article on the fire hazard on the North Cheyenne Cañon Park border made clear that the city took no meaningful action for over two years to protect the adjacent neighborhood and the park itself.

Manage? What about the botched forestry project in Stratton Open Space?

Improve? Graffiti and gang tagging have been essentially sanctioned by the Cheyenne Cañon ranger who discourages removal efforts. Then there are the new trail signs that confuse hikers with misaligned maps.

Preserve, protect, manage, improve? All these were violated with the Broadmoor land swap because our public land was traded away without the owners' permission.

The current North Cheyenne Cañon Park Master Plan is under the shadow of corruption and mismanagement. Citizens past and present have been betrayed by the Strawberry Fields trade-away.

The Master Plan focus should be on reacquiring all of North Cheyenne Cañon that was dedicated to the public in 1885.

After that, maybe the public can begin to trust that the parks mission statement has meaning.